page_title: Fort Bassein
section_title: Treaty of Vasai (1534)
hierarchical_section_title: Fort Bassein / History / Portuguese Era / Treaty of Vasai (1534)
caption_attribution_description: English: Vasai fort building
context_page_description: Fort Bassein, also known as the Vasai Fort or Corte de Baçaim meaning "Court of Bassein" in Indo-Portuguese creole, वसई चा किल्ला in Maharashtrian Konkani, is a ruined fort in the town of Vasai in the Palghar district of Konkan division in Maharashtra, India. The name "Bassein" is the anglicised version of the Portuguese Baçaim, which is itself a derivation of an apparently native name that may have a connection to the tribal Vasa Konkani people of the North Konkan region, extending from Mumbai into "South Gujarat". Bassein's alternate official name is Vasai.
  The full form of the Portuguese name is "Fortaleza de São Sebastião de Baçaím" or the Fort of St. Sebastian of Vasai. The fort is a monument of national importance and is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India.
  The fort and the town are accessible via the Vasai Road railway station which itself is in Navghar-Manikpur, a part of the city of Vasai-Virar, and lies to the immediate north of the city of Mumbai and Mira Road in Bhayandar. The Vasai Road railway station is on the Western Railway line in the direction of the Virar railway station.
context_section_description: The Treaty of Vasai (1534) was signed by Sultan Bahadur of Gujarat and the Kingdom of Portugal on 23 December 1534 while on board the galleon São Mateus. Based on the terms of the agreement, the Portuguese Empire gained control of the city of Vasai, as well as its territories, islands, and seas. The Mumbai Islands under Portuguese control include Colaba, Old Woman's Island, Mumbai, Mazagaon, Worli, Matunga, and Mahim. Salsette, Daman and Diu, Thane, Kalyan, and Chaul were other territories controlled and settled by the Portuguese.
  At the time, the cession of Mumbai was of minor importance - but retroactively it gained a crucial importance when the place passed from the Portuguese to the British in 1661 as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza and became a major trade centre - making this the treaty's most important long-term result. Vasai was the Portuguese northern capital at the time of the 16th-century treaty with the Sultan.
  Under Portuguese India, the fort was the Northern Court or "Corte da Norte", second only to the city of Goa, functioning as the headquarters of the Captain of the North. For approximately 150 years, the presence of the Portuguese made the surrounding area a vibrant and opulent city. As such it was the capital of Portuguese possessions on the coast north of Goa, over places such as Chaul-Revdanda, Karanja Island, the Mumbai Archipelago, Bandra Island, Juhu Island, Salsette Island including the city of Thane, Dharavi Island, the Vasai archipelago, Daman, Diu and other Portuguese holdings extending up the coasts to Pakistan, Oman, the UAE, Iran and other parts of the Persian Gulf.
  The ethnic community locally known in the Mumbai region as the "East Indians" were called "Norteiro" (Northern men) after the Court of the North functioning out of the fort.
caption: One of the few standing structures
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